Saturday, February 3, 2018

January: Best and Strangest

Ah! This year is already flying by and leaving me to wonder if there will ever be enough time to do all the reading I want to do (obviously, the answer is no - I won't ever be able to read as much as I want to). This month, I managed to read 14 books and published 9 blog posts. All in all, not a bad start to the year. Below are this month's best and strangest:


BEST OF JANUARY

Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
  • Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest by Zeynep Tufekci - This was a surprising favorite for me. I really enjoyed this book and was excited to read it, but I didn't realize how much I'd use the knowledge I gained from this book - it's benefited so many conversations, a lot of my classwork, and just helped give me a better understanding of the dangers and benefits of social media. I highly highly recommend this book for everyone.

STRANGEST OF JANUARY

Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle, #1)
  • Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - This is the first month that I've read a Dark Tower book and haven't nominated that as strangest. It was close, but Howl's Moving Castle ended up sitting in my head a lot more than The Waste Lands did, so it won out this month! Full of moving castles, scarecrow stalkers, green slime, and fashion magic, this book was delightful and hilarious and certainly kept me on my toes. It's bizarre and adorable and totally worth the time.

OTHER JANUARY BOOKS

Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1)
★★★



Traitor's Blade (Greatcoats, #1)
★★★


Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
★★★


The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 2: Squirrel You Know It's True
★★★★


Theft: A History of Music
★★★★


Wake of Vultures (The Shadow, #1)
★★


Hawksmoor
★★★


The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy, #1)
★★★★


Moonshine
★★★


The Language of Spells
★★★★


The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)
★★★★


Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village
★★★★★


My most popular blog post this month was On books to read if you want to learn more about music, which kind of surprised me! My music posts aren't typically viewed as often as other posts, so I was glad this one got a lot of attention.


What books did you read this month? What were the best and strangest books you've read recently? What blog posts really caught your eye? 

8 comments:

  1. The strangest (in a good way!) book that I read last month was 100 Word Horrors: An Anthology of Horror Drabbles by Kevin J. Kennedy. I had never heard of a "drabble" before I read this book, but now I'm really interesting in flash horror! :)

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    1. That sounds fascinating! I might need to pick it up - it definitely sounds like my kind of strange read.

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  2. Ooh, Twitter and Teargas sounds fascinating! I really enjoy books about social media, especially if they're not too extremely for or against it, and this seems like an interesting approach to the topic.

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    1. It's wonderful. She takes a pretty neutral stance and shows a lot of the pros and cons of it - definitely worth reading.

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  3. Somehow I've missed Howl's Moving Castle. I definitely want to try it soon. :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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    1. It's so much fun and the movie is adorable - plus, it's pretty quick.

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  4. I loved the movie of Howl's Moving Castle & definitely need to check out the book.

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    1. The movie is so cute, but the book is even better (as is to be expected). Give it a try!

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